Doomed to Fail: Why Government Is Incapable of Living up Our Hopes

Human societies are complex adaptive systems, the nature of which has important ramifications for the way in which countries organize themselves politically and arrange themselves economically. In Paul Shotton explains why liberal democracy is the least-bad political framework, and why every other political system will inevitably lead to war. Likewise, capitalism, which emerged naturally from the industrial revolution, is the least bad way for a polity to organize economically. Every attempt to improve upon or replace capitalism, however well intentioned, has led to economic disaster. That democracy and capitalism are symbiotic and aligned with the best interests of humanity stems from an underlying mechanism they share with the development of life on earth itself. Shotton then zooms-in on central banks to discuss the role they played in causing the Global Financial Crisis and, by virtue of their response to it, made the fallout much worse. As a result of their incompetence and arrogance, our political and economic elite risk the destruction of democracy and capitalism, which have been the source of all human progress since the dawn of humanity. He calls for renewed invigoration of the principles upon which America was founded if disaster for humanity is to be averted.